A now-popular packaging style for wine and other beverages in glass bottles is to treat the exterior of the bottle with a physical or chemical etching process to create a soft matte or frosted appearance. The etch treatment can be all-over, in a design, or with area(s) omitted for screen printing.
Physical etching is accomplished by sandblasting fine particles against the surface to be decorated. In chemical etching, an acid is applied to react with the glass surface. Either method is laborious, costly, involves the use of harsh chemicals, and produces waste material requiring expensive disposal. Also, some assert that a glass bottle so treated may suffer impaired strength.
The work of others who have addressed this challenge are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,099,944; 5,571,557; and 6,214,424.